"lack of co-ordination"

before christmas my father attended A&E with a hernia problem. After going through A&E was sent to Ward 31 (CDU) where a nurse massaged it back into place, and said any further issues to come back to ward 31.

Was then seen by a doctor who said he was in the 'pool' for surgery to sort the problem, with no timescale or further avice given.

On Thursday last week the hernia reappeared and visited hospital in the evening. Despite the previous comments, ward 31 would not see him until he had been through A&E. After 4 hours in A&E he eventually was sent up to ward 31. By this time, having been sat down still for such a long time the hernia had gone back.

The junior doctor on duty said that the registrar was in surgery. They reviewed the notes and said that my dad should have been provided with a plan to deal with the issue pending his operation. We waited a further half hour and around 12:30 am the doctor advised us that it was not clear how long the registrar would be, that nothing could be done that night anyway and that it wsa best to go home and return the next day to ward 31 - and that we should ring in advance to make sure someone appropriate would be there to see him.

The doctor did warn that we might need to go through A&E.

The following day as instructed we contacted ward 31 who said they would not see him without a medical referral. We therefore rang the surgery (Blacketts) who contacted ward 31, who again refused to see him, presumably on the grounds that he had not actually seen the doctor.

Today he attended A&E to try and get something sorted, but was told (quite pleasantly) that as e was nt at that moment in severe pain nothing could be done - so he might as well go home.

It seems a ridiculous situation when A&E is very busy that to get some advice and a management plan fr a problem requires so much effort. After 6 hours at the hospital over 2 days we are no further forward in getting any support for this recurring problem, apart from the statement that he is n te pool awaiting a surgical cancellation.

There is absolutely no evidence in this experience of any joined up thinking and lots of buck passing.